Epizootiološko istraživanje slinavke i šapa u Sudanu: stanje nakon dva desetljeća

In order to update information on the situation regarding foot and mouth disease (FMD) in the Sudan, a serosurvey and disease survey were conducted. Recently collected data on FMD in the Sudan showed that FMD is a major constraint to animal production in the country. It presents no threat nor does it cause mild disease in sheep and goats. The disease, with obvious clinical signs, has been detected in cattle only, and is caused by serotype O and SAT 2. Seasonal occurrence of the disease in the cold, dry season has been observed and animal movement seems to play a major role in virus dissemination. A total of 1,069 sera were collected from cattle, sheep, goats, and camel, from seven states in the Sudan, for the detection of antibodies to FMDV. Application of liquid phase blocking (LPB) ELISA revealed that antibodies to four serotypes were present in ruminants; namely O, A, SAT 1 and SAT 2. No antibodies to FMDV were detected in camel sera. The results differed from early reports regarding the prevalence of serotype specifi c antibodies in different species; for instance, in cattle, the antibodies to type A (78.13%) surpassed that of type O (69.39%) and the antibodies to type SAT 2 (44%) surpassed that of type SAT 1 (20.2%). This work elucidates the current epidemiology of FMD in some parts of the Sudan.Radi pružanja informacija o sadašnjem stanju slinavke i šapa u Sudanu provedena su serološka istraživanja te je prikazana njezina pojavnost. Svježe prikupljeni podatci o pojavi slinavke i šapa u Sudanu pokazali su da ona predstavlja veliku prepreku životinjskoj proizvodnji u toj zemlji. U ovaca i koza javlja se kao blaga bolest i ne predstavlja veliku prijetnju, dok se u goveda javlja s očitim kliničkim znakovima, a uzrokovana je serotipovima O i SAT 2. Bolest se javlja sezonski u hladnoj i suhoj sezoni, a promet životinjama ima glavnu ulogu u širenju virusa. Ukupno je bilo prikupljeno 1069 uzoraka seruma goveda, ovaca, koza i deva podrijetlom iz sedam država u Sudanu radi pretrage na prisutnost protutijela za virus slinavke i šapa. Blokirajućim imunonenzimnim testom dokazana su protutijela za četiri serotipa virusa: O, A, SAT 1 i SAT 2. Protutijela za virus slinavke i šapa nisu bila dokazana u uzorcima seruma deva. Rezultati se razlikuju od ranijih izvješća s obzirom na prevalenciju specifi čnih protutijela u različitih vrsta. Npr., specifi čna protutijela za serotip A dokazana su u 78,13% goveda, za serotip O u 69,39%, serotip SAT 2 u 44% te serotip SAT 1 u 20,2% goveda. U radu je prikazano sadašnje epizootiološko stanje slinavke i šapa u nekim dijelovima Sudana

Community Knowledge, Perceptions, and Practices Associated with Urogenital Schistosomiasis among School-Aged Children in Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania

Background: On the Zanzibar islands, United Republic of Tanzania, elimination of urogenital schistosomiasis is strived for in the coming years. This qualitative study aimed to better understand community knowledge, perceptions, and practices associated with schistosomiasis among school-aged children on Unguja and Pemba islands, in order to inform the development of behavior change interventions contributing to eliminate urogenital schistosomiasis. Methodology: In 2011, we conducted 35 children’s discussion groups, 41 in-depth interviews with parents and teachers, and 5 focus group discussions with community members in Zanzibar. Using a modified-grounded theory approach, we transcribed and coded the narrative data followed by thematic analysis of the emergent themes. Principal Findings: Urogenital schistosomiasis is a common experience among children in Zanzibar and typically considered a boys’ disease. Children engage in multiple high-risk behaviors for acquiring schistosomiasis because of poor knowledge on disease transmission, lack of understanding on severity of disease-associated consequences, and lack of alternative options for water related activities of daily living and recreational play. Local primary school teachers had little to no training about the disease and no teaching tools or materials for students. Conclusions/Significance: Conducting activities in open natural freshwater contaminated by S. haematobium larvae compromises the health of school-aged children in Zanzibar. The perception of urogenital schistosomiasis as a minor illness rather than a serious threat to a child’s well-being contributes to the spread of disease. Understanding community perceptions of disease along with the barriers and facilitators to risk reduction behaviors among children can inform health promotion activities, campaigns, and programs for the prevention, control, and elimination of urogenital schistosomiasis in Zanzibar

Evaluation study of IEEE 1609.4 performance for safety and non-safety messages dissemination

The IEEE 1609.4 was developed to support multi-channel operation and channel switching procedure in order to provide both safety and non-safety vehicular applications. However, this protocol has some drawback because it does not make efficient usage of channel bandwidth resources for single radio WAVE devices and suffer from high bounded delay and lost packet especially for large-scale networks in terms of the number of active nodes. This paper evaluates IEEE 1609.4 multi-channel protocol performance for safety and non-safety application and compare it with the IEEE 802.11p single channel protocol. Multi-channel and single channel protocols are analyzed in different environments to investigate their performance. By relying on a realistic dataset and using OMNeT++ simulation tool as network simulator, SUMO as traffic simulator and coupling them by employing Veins framework. Performance evaluation results show that the delay of single channel protocol IEEE 802.11p has been degraded 36% compared with multi-channel protocol

The Financing Health System Problem in Algeria

The health sector in Algeria witnesses a great development, especially during the last two decades of the last century to coincide with the economic and social changes of the country. But despite the enormity of what the state spends on this sensitive sector in order to meet the growing demand for health services provided by the public or private sector, which, however, take advantage of these services was still below the required level where the sector remains vulnerable to various problems

Mycobacterial antigen MPT64 specific polyclonal antibody production and validation for an immunohistochemistry based diagnostic test for extrapulmonary tuberculosis

Mycobacterial antigen MPT64 specific polyclonal antibody production and validation for an immunohistochemistry based diagnostic test for extrapulmonary tuberculosis Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) constitute 20-40% of all TB. Diagnosis of EPTB poses challenges as the routine diagnostic tests are less sensitive due to the paucibacillary nature of the disease. Therefore, there is a need to develop better diagnostic tests for EPTB. An antigen detection test based on the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex specific protein MPT64 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) has been developed and validated in the routine diagnostic settings (1-8). These studies show that the MPT64 antigen detection test is applicable to various forms of EPTB, including HIV positive and HIV negative cases, on biopsies, fine-needle aspirates, and cytology smears with sensitivity 70-100% and specificity 65-100% which is significantly better than the routine tests. This test is robust, feasible to implement in high TB endemic settings (2), and can help in the timely and accurate diagnosis of EPTB, preventing empirical over-treatment, morbidity, and mortality. These findings warrant the large-scale implementation of the test. However, all these studies have been carried out by the limited amount of in-house rabbit polyclonal antibody (pAb). The reproduction of an anti-MPT64 antibody with applicability on IHC is a prerequisite for large-scale use of the test. Our research group has reproduced a monoclonal anti-MPT64 antibody which gives good reactivity with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) against the recombinant antigen, but it does not give good reactivity on formalin-fixed tissues. This is probably due to variable epitopes in vivo and changes in the antigen during the fixation process. PAbs, by virtue of their polyclonality and heterogeneity, can bind to multiple and different antigenic epitopes, and could be a suitable candidate for IHC. Aims: The aim of this study was to reproduce the anti-MPT64 pAb, create a single batch in a large volume, validate the new pAb on formalin-fixed clinical samples, and compare the validity with Xpert MTB/RIF assay. Material and Methods: Recombinant MPT64 protein was prepared by using a mammalian cell expression system. Rabbits were used as host animals for the generation of pAbs. An immunization strategy was designed by a pre-immunization selection of 38/180 rabbits with minimal reactivity of their sera on the formalin-fixed tissues by IHC. The 38 selected rabbits were immunized by recombinant antigen and Titer Max Gold adjuvant by using a shorter and longer immunization protocol generating 50 ml and 90 ml of sera, respectively from each rabbit. Individual bleeds from each rabbit were tested with ELISA and IHC. Sera with good reactivity by IHC on the formalin-fixed TB positive control tissues and minimal reactivity on the non-TB tissues were further tested by making various cocktails to generate a single batch in a large volume. Various background reducing strategies were applied to achieve good specificity. These batches were tested on human clinical samples. The selected batch was validated on bacteriology confirmed (culture and/or Xpert MTB/RIF positive) EPTB (24 lymphadenitis and 21 pleuritis) and 41 non-TB biopsies by IHC. The sensitivity of the new pAb was compared with the microscopy for acid-fast bacilli and Xpert MTB/RIF assay using culture as a reference standard. Results: All bleeds had very good reactivity with ELISA, with titer mostly around 1:200.000. With IHC, reactivity with the individual bleeds was variable, some sera gave very good sensitivity and specificity, while others were less sensitive and/or less specific due to the non-specific background staining. Among the various background reducing strategies, overnight incubation of tissue sections with 3% bovine serum albumin and 10% normal goat serum followed by further blocking with serum-free protein block gave good results with a significant reduction of non-specific staining. Among five cocktails made from sera of 25 rabbits, one cocktail consisting of sera from 10 rabbits gave the best results. The sensitivity of this cocktail was similar to the previous anti-MPT64 pAb, though the staining intensity was generally less, the signals were clearly visible. Using bacteriological confirmation as a reference standard, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy of IHC with this batch of new pAb in lymphadenitis were 88%, 80%, 72%, 92%, and 83%, respectively, and in pleuritis were 86%, 80%, 69%, 92%, and 82%, respectively. Using culture as a reference standard, the performance of the new anti-MPT64 pAb was better than AFB microscopy in both lymphadenitis and pleuritis (sensitivity 88% vs. 13%, and 89% vs. 6%), while it was better than Xpert MTB/RIF in the TB pleuritis (sensitivity 89% vs. 17%) and similar to it in lymphadenitis (sensitivity 88% vs. 88%). Conclusion: The study shows that it is possible to reproduce pAbs that can detect the MPT64 antigen in the formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections by IHC. The sensitivity of the MPT64 antigen detection test by using these new pAbs is better than the AFB microscopy and Xpert MTB/RIF. This opens up the possibility of the large-scale use of this test and its inclusion in the routine diagnostics of EPTB.MAMD-GLOBINTH395

Real Time Vehicle License Plate Recognition on Mobile Devices

Automatic license plate recognition is useful in many contexts such as parking control, law enforcement and vehicle background checking. The high cost and low portability of commercial systems makes them inaccessible to the majority of end users. However, current mobile devices now have processors and cameras that make image processing and recognition applications feasible on them. This thesis investigates high accuracy real-time license plate recognition on a smartphone, taking into account device limitations. It first explores how, using the minimal image processing and simple configurable heuristics based on plate geometry, license plates and their characters can be detected in an image. Then, using minimal training data, it shows that a character recognition package can achieve high levels of accuracy. This approach accurately recognized 99 percent of plates appearing in a test set of videos of vehicles with New Zealand license plates

Gossybipoma, an overlooked cause of bowel obstruction: a case report and literature review

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